News

Ironman, Leadman Battle For Bend

Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.

A company planning a series of triathlons in Central Oregon is asking civic leaders there not to bring the larger, more famous Ironman Triathlon to town, at least not on the same day.

Ironman is a grueling, long-distance race put on by the World Triathlon Corporation. Doug Laplaca is president of Bend’s tourism board, Visit Bend. He says a few years his group met with Ironman organizers to discuss bringing the event to Central Oregon. He says they came away agreeing it wasn’t an ideal match.

But now a private consortium is once again courting Ironman.

This time organizers seem more open to the idea. But Laplaca says the date they proposed happens to conflict with an already announced triathlon from an Ironman competitor.

Laplaca says last year Minnesota based Life Time Fitness inked a three-year deal to bring its Leadman Triathlon to Bend.

“We are not ready to throw a relationship away with a very large company who’s ready to make a very solid investment in our community for a chance at a larger event”, he said.